


I call this next little number: Teenagers Have No Idea How To Properly Define Relationships.

by im_ashamed



Category: RWBY
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, More or less Canon Compliant, Multi, Some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 19:37:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7696738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_ashamed/pseuds/im_ashamed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Which cotton field would you rather have, sir?"</p><p>"The bigger one, of course."</p><p>"But the smaller one has a sturdy fence that will keep out thieves."</p><p>"Now, see here, who would dare steal MY cotton?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	I call this next little number: Teenagers Have No Idea How To Properly Define Relationships.

It was maybe a month into their partnership. Neptune had never met a fannus before, but he figured that since he was learning how to live with Sun, he must be doing alright. And he was, he was doing just fine with the eighty percent of Sun that was human, but the truth was, he was just flat out ignoring the rest.

  
Later he wouldn’t quite remember the wording of the stupid assignment. Months later, that is. The whole three days Sun was gone he couldn’t get it out of his head. The innocuous twelve point Times New Roman font twisted behind his eyelids and seared the ugly words into his brain. 

 

They had Animal Physiology together, and it was a damn cool class. Sun had listened patiently while Neptune geeked out about it, how fascinating it was to know how we were put together, how one cell fit into the next, and the next and the next, stretching out to an infinity deftly contained in our tiny little bodies. 

  
“Tiny?” Sun had asked, his tail nudging Neptune’s cheek. 

  
Neptune batted it away and smiled. “Compared to almost everything else, yeah.”

  
Compared to the gigantic weight of ‘You are a terrible person’ welded onto Neptune’s shoulders a week later, that is.

  
The assignment was a worksheet. They had to list the ten most obvious differences between humans and fannus.

  
Perhaps Neptune had been a little too excited. Suddenly he had so many question he had never thought of before. He knew next to nothing about fannus, but that wasn’t an excuse. He still thought he should have known better than to make that stupid joke about the title of the assignment and the island of Menagerie. 

  
He didn’t catch the change in Sun’s disposition until he had nowhere to back track. 

  
So he dived right into the screaming match.

  
It was a relief not to see Sun in their room all of Saturday. Sunday was fine too.

  
So he skipped Animal Physiology on Monday morning. That made sense. 

  
By Monday night Neptune was a wreck. He needed to know Sun was safe. He needed to apologize. He needed his partner to forgive him.

  
Tuesday morning SSN awoke to the smell of coffee and fresh pastries, a million times better than the crap at the cafeteria. 

  
“I used your card.” Sun said from his perch in the window. 

  
Neptune hadn’t even realized he took it. He wanted to panic about that, but instead he looked Sun in the eye and let the understanding pass between them. Sun was asking for an apology and he gave it by waiting patiently for Sun to toss the debit card back, and tucking it into his wallet without another word. 

  
It was then that Neptune put his faith in his partner. When Sun disappeared for whole nights, or weekends, or times when he really should have been around (The last two days of hell week, three hours before the team sparring matches, etc.) Neptune didn’t worry.

Because Sun always came back.

  
Even later, when Sun took to sleeping in his bed because he said it was softer, and smelled better, and Neptune was within arms and lips reach, he didn’t mind it when he slipped between the covers at four in the morning smelling like sweat that wasn’t his.

  
He always came back, and didn’t that mean even more when he wasn’t on a leash to keep him there? In Neptune’s mind it meant that no one could measure up. Sun always returned because there wasn’t anywhere else he wanted to go. 

  
He vanished a week before they were supposed to leave for the Vytal tournament. This didn’t surprise the rest of the team one bit. Sun probably knew it wouldn’t since he called a few times. He had been restless, not in need of escape. 

  
“It’s not too much better here, though. Still, I dunno, itchy.”

  
Neptune leaned back against the pane of the biggest window in their room, Sun’s favorite perch when he was around. “Not even anyone good looking to flirt with?”

  
Sun snorted. “It’s not that kind of itch.”

  
“I know.”

  
They talked a little longer, but there was a vague worry Neptune couldn’t shake.

  
“Don’t do anything stupid.” He said as the conversation wound down.

“Define that.”

  
“No dumb fights. Beacon isn’t the safest city for a fannus.”

  
“I know, I know.”

  
Neptune wanted to be there right then. Sling his arm around Sun’s torso and pull him close. Make sure he really was as okay as he claimed. 

  
And soon enough he would. Because Sun always came back. 

  
Then he met Blake. Which was a lovely experience in and of itself.

  
Then he saw the way Sun looked at Blake.

  
He had not come back, and he had dragged Neptune’s heart after him. He presented it to him, water logged and gouged with grit and gravel.

  
“You can have this back.” Was all Neptune could hear him saying as he tried to explain. “I don’t want it anymore.”

  
He held the poor mangled thing while Sun trotted back up to Blake, watched the blood ooze down his hand. 

  
He wanted to tell Sun that he always came back, throw that in his face as though it meant something. As though coming back a thousand times meant he wasn’t free to leave for good the thousand and first.  

  
Neptune tucked away what was left of his heart, trying to put it somewhere safe where it couldn’t break again. 

  
Only then was he free to shatter around it. 


End file.
